Azure updates
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RSS feedJanuary 2021
Public IP SKU upgrade generally available
Azure public IPs now support the ability to be upgraded from Basic to Standard SKU, enabling customers to retain the same IP address for services that require Standard IP frontends.
NCas_T4_v3-Series VMs are now generally available
These virtual machines are ideal to run ML and AI workloads utilizing Cuda, TensorFlow, Pytorch, Caffe, and other Frameworks or the graphics workloads using NVIDIA GRID technology.
December 2020
Automatic VM placement and Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets available on Dedicated Host
Azure can now select the dedicated host to which your VM is deployed. Additionally, Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets can be deployed in conjunction with Dedicated Hosts.
Intel SGX based confidential computing VMs now available on Azure Dedicated Hosts
The new DCsv2_Type1 Dedicated Host SKUs add confidential computing capabilities to Azure Dedicated Hosts. The DCsv2-series Azure Virtual Machines can help protect the confidentiality and integrity of your data and code while it’s processed in the public cloud. Dedicated hosts will provide further isolation from other tenants, further enhancing the isolation aspect of secure applications within confidential computing.
New Azure Monitor Agent and Data Collection Rules capabilities released in public preview
The new Azure Monitor Agent and the Data Collection Rules feature of Azure Monitor are announcing the release of several key features including support for on-premises servers (with Arc installed) and virtual machines scale sets, as well as sample ARM templates for programmatic installation and management, in addition to portal UI.
Azure Machine Learning updates December 2020 in public preview
Azure Machine Learning has new updates on View capabilities.
Azure Stack Edge Virtual Machine Support is in public preview
Azure Stack Edge hosts Azure virtual machines so you can run your VM based IoT, AI, and business applications on an Azure appliance at your location.
Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop in public preview
Azure Monitor for Windows Virtual Desktop is a new capability that provides a centralized monitoring view to help you identify and troubleshoot issues with Windows Virtual Desktop.
November 2020
Unified Connection Monitor in Network Watcher is now generally available
Connection monitor provides unified end-to-end connection monitoring capabilities for hybrid and Azure deployments. It brings together the best of Network Performance Monitor and Connection Monitor (classic).
Azure Monitor for Virtual Machines Guest Health is in public preview
Announcing the Public Preview of the Guest Health feature of Azure Monitor for Virtual Machines, that monitors the health of your virtual machines and fires an alert when any of the parameters being monitored are outside the acceptable range.
HDInsight HBase Accelerated Writes with Premium Data Lake Storage Gen2 is now generally available
With Premium Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 support for accelerated writes HDInsight HBase cluster, customers can now have increased read performance compared to standard storage and also take advantage of Hierarchical namespace feature of Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2.
New SAP HANA Certified Memory-Optimized Virtual Machines now available
We are expanding our SAP HANA certifications, enabling you to run production SAP HANA workloads on the Edsv4 virtual machines sizes.
Azure IoT Central new and updated features—October 2020
October updates job scheduling, enhanced IoT Edge support, dashboard improvements, and documentation updates.
SQL Server Reporting Services Virtual Machine images now available
Migrate SQL Server Reporting Services workloads into Azure using pre-configured VM images to enable easier workload management, more efficient onboarding to the cloud, and leverage benefits by selecting preconfigured images.
SQL Server Analysis Services Virtual Machine images now available
SQL Server Analysis Services Virtual Machine images (in general availability) can help make your workloads more efficient, enable an easier onboarding experience, and helps viewing your different virtual machine workloads and managing them.
Azure Backup—Soft delete for SQL Server and SAP HANA running in Azure VM
Soft Delete for Azure Backup for SQL and SAP HANA in Azure Virtual Machines is now generally available.
Power BI dynamic M query parameter support
Power BI dynamic M query parameter allows users to explicitly inject filters at the designated place in the query and improve query performance by a few factors, especially when the report is built on top of a very big dataset, or using complex query logic.
PowerShell support for Server Migration with Azure Migrate is now generally available
Automate migration of VMware virtual machines to Azure using Azure Migrate and Azure PowerShell
October 2020
Action Required: Migrate to Data Science Virtual Machine Ubuntu 18.04
Target retirement date: April 01, 2021
End of Support for Data Science Virtual Machine for Ubuntu 16.04 on 1 April 2021.
Register Your Azure SQL Virtual Machines with SQL Server IaaS Agent extension today
By simply checking a box, you can automatically register all existing and future SQL Server VMs in your subscription to access features designed to enable cost savings and increase manageability.
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